Introduction To Upgrading

There are two primary reasons to upgrade an existing Collect! database.

• First and most obvious, you wish to take advantage of using a new release. For this upgrade, you can use the convenient one-click upgrade procedure described in the Help topic, One Click Upgrade.
  
  
• Second, manually upgrading a database will actually condense or defrag the data to the smallest possible size. For this type of upgrade, you would preform a manual upgrade rather than the one-click

Both of these reasons are valid. Performing the upgrade should be a simple process that should not hamper your day to day operations.

Upgrading Collect! is an important event. For those of you who have never upgraded a database before, there are a few points to consider.

Upgrading OS or Computers too? If you have decided to upgrade your Server or hardware as well, postpone upgrading of Collect! until after you have finished with any changes to your computers.

Don't attempt to upgrade your hardware or operating system at the same time as you upgrade your Collect! Upgrading your equipment is a world by itself. Doing too many things at once may result in unexpected and frustrating complications with no ability to confirm which aspect is the problem.

When you have been successfully running your current Collect! on the new equipment, or operating system, for a week or two, then, you should proceed with the upgrading of your Collect! software.

Planning your upgrade. Planning for an upgrade is very important. Doing a test run on the upgrade is a very valuable practice. When upgrading, having that security of your existing database, untouched and waiting if you need to move back to it is a big stress reliever.

Is it a Major or Minor Upgrade? You need to know whether you are upgrading to a MAJOR RELEASE CHANGE, or upgrading within the SAME VERSION.

Upgrading from a Collect! Version 8, Version 10 or Version 11 database is a major upgrade. Upgrading from a recent build of CV11 may be only a minor upgrade.

A major version upgrade may require some in-depth scrutiny of data after the upgrade. Perhaps features not available in the older release may affect the financials of a debtor. Or, maybe you will have to review the reports to verify that they still print as they used to. For these reasons, you must figure on more time for testing and verifying when you are doing a major upgrade.

To judge when you may apply an upgrade, you will need to determine your timelines by allotting testing and verification time and benchmarking the time it takes to do a major upgrade.

Have you prepared for the upgrade? The next step is to properly prepare for the upgrade. Before doing any upgrade, thorough maintenance and recalculation of all totals must be completed. A backup of your database must be created and it is necessary to know how to restore the backup, just in case something goes wrong. This ensures that your day to day operations will not be interrupted by an unforeseen circumstance during the upgrade procedure.

Do you use multiple databases? Each database that you use must be upgraded at the same time. The preparations must be performed for each database that you intend to upgrade.

Do you need help with upgrading? Finally, you must be very familiar with your system. Where is your current database installed? How much space do you have on your hard drive? How big is your actual database? Are you knowledgeable about your operating system? If you are not comfortable, or you are new to Collect! you may want to bring in a technician to give you a hand and help you out with this upgrade. Remember, this is your business, your future. You want to ensure that nothing interrupts the flow.

See Also

- Upgrading Topics